This Gazette photo from 2007 looks down Second St. SE toward First Ave.

It wasn’t so long ago that a fellow Gazetteer and I marveled at how fortunate we were to work downtown.

It’s a different scene downtown now, and a rather lonely one come lunch or coffee time. While I’m thrilled that Sub City has reopened, Phong Lan is just a couple of blocks away, and a walk to Brewed Awakenings is a nice extended break, I miss the urban downtown scene and the slow but steady growth in dining (and nightlife) options here.

When I talked with Quinn Pettifer at the Downtown District back in February, she told me there were 37 restaurants downtown. Most of them were affected by the floods. Of course they weren’t the only restaurants in the area hit — there were popular pubs and restaurants and bars in Czech Village, along the Coralville strip, and in other flooded areas, too.

Earlier this month I started working on checking in with the flood-affected restaurants, and asking owners and/or chefs if they’d be willing to share a favorite or signature recipe — something to tide us over while we’re waiting for them to reopen their doors. Check out today’s column for a recipe from C.R. Chophouse, and let me know if there’s a specific restaurant or recipe you’d like to see in future columns.

And if you’re looking for information on which restaurants have said they plan to rebuild downtown, check out Cedar Rapids Downtown District’s list of businesses who told the organization they are committed to downtown. You can also find some information on flooded restaurants — and other businesses — in The Gazette’s relocated businesses database.